<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Only to Rise by imaginary_golux</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29477415">Only to Rise</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux'>imaginary_golux</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon-typical voyeurism, Cuddling &amp; Snuggling, M/M, Non-Graphic Smut, Requited Love</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 22:21:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>373</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29477415</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Csevet considers another momentous change in his life, and decides it, too, is good.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Csevet Aisava/Maia Drazhar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>February Ficlet Challenge 2021: Apocalypse No</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Only to Rise</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Csevet is not what one might call an innocent in matters of the bedchamber. No courier is; even if they have not themselves had a wide variety of bed partners, they’ve all heard a great many stories from their fellows. Csevet has even told some; there was a particularly memorable moment in a bathhouse with two other couriers and a particularly adventuresome seamstress, for instance, which earned him a great many slaps on the back and cheerfully envious teasing.</p>
<p>Which means that it is all the stranger that he is lying here in the quiet aftermath of what was, looked at dispassionately, an extremely tame and rather clumsy mutual handjob, feeling rather as if he’s floating on air instead of sinking into the delightful softness of a very good featherbed.</p>
<p>His Serenity - <em>Maia</em> - is lying next to Csevet with his head on Csevet’s shoulder, and Csevet is stroking Maia’s lovely hair, and the imperial bedchamber is very still. Somewhere out past the curtains, Csevet knows, Cala is very carefully <em>not</em> listening to this. It’s not the first time Csevet has had sex within someone else’s hearing; it will not be the last.</p>
<p>No, it will not be the last, because this is not an emperor taking advantage of his servant. Maybe other emperors might do so, but not Edrehasivar VII. Not <em>Maia</em>, who offered, brave and hesitant and sure of nothing, the truth of his affection, coupled with the firm assurance that Csevet need do nothing, need fear nothing - who went so still with shock and rising delight when Csevet threw his careful courtly demeanor to the four winds and kissed him. Who is sweetly eager and painfully innocent and utterly <em>beautiful</em> in Csevet’s arms.</p>
<p>Whose eyes hold even now something Csevet might call <em>rapture</em>, an ecstasy so pure it almost hurts to see. A joy, not just in the pleasure of their bodies, but in <em>Csevet</em>, in the knowledge that his own affections are returned.</p>
<p>As Csevet himself is very near to floating off the bed in the sheer joy of being allowed to show his devotion, his <em>adoration</em>, in more than simply becoming the finest secretary an emperor has ever had.</p>
<p>Perhaps rapture is the best word for it, after all.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Written for the FFC prompt "Rapture," and beta'd by my absolutely wonderful Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>